Greetings to all!
And yes, we are still here, despite the temporary silence from the Link Ethiopia team whilst we were all in Ethiopia. We have had an excellent trip and have all sorts of news to report to you about our latest plans and projects. So let’s go!
News from Ethiopia
- The dispute between Ethiopia and its immediate neighbour Eritrea has continued to smoulder since the two countries were at war in the late 1990’s. Since that time, the UN has manned a buffer zone in order to preserve the uneasy peace. It was therefore a welcome recent pronouncement by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi when he stated categorically that he would not wage war on Eritrea unless the latter made a direct invasion of his country. How tragic it would be if once again the two countries were to waste lives and finance in a futile altercation.
- The greatest Ethiopian long distance runner of all time, Haile Gebreselassie, has again shown the world what a great athlete he really is. Since our last News Update, he competed in the Berlin Marathon where he smashed the world marathon record by taking 29 seconds off the previous time, a record that had stood in place since 2003. Are there no limits to this man’s extraordinary physical accomplishments?
Meet the Team
Ashley England is the Link Ethiopia Treasurer and gives many hours of his enthusiastic time to the planning and control of the organisation’s finances, as well as to our ever so successful Gift Ethiopia scheme. He has been twice to Ethiopia, and remains supportive and creative in all our activities.
Score Ethiopia
Our latest exciting news is of our involvement with Proctor and Gamble, the hair shampoo Wash & Go, and The Sun newspaper. As part of their marketing campaign for Wash & Go, Proctor and Gamble have decided support young people in Ethiopia with Link Ethiopia’s advice and help. We are initially focussing on the historic hillside village of Lalibela, where we are hoping not only to provide the young people with good facilities for football, but also to fund job training and business start-up support within the village, teaching construction and manufacturing skills, food production and preparation, and other vocational subjects which will build on the tourism infrastructure supporting Lalibela’s main economic activity. The footballing legend and current star of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, John Barnes, is the front man for this campaign, and is due to visit Lalibela again in the next couple of weeks.
In the UK, a big campaign has started around the country to challenge primary pupils to design a football strip that will eventually get made and presented to an Ethiopian school who will be doing the same thing in reverse. There has already been great interest shown in both countries. The full details for Score Ethiopia can be found at www.linkethiopia.org/score
Gift Ethiopia
Link Ethiopia’s ‘alternative’ gift catalogue this year is bigger and better than ever before, with a wide range of attractive and tempting gifts for you to buy for your nearest and dearest this Christmas (or at any other time, of course!).
Thanks to everyone’s generosity, we shall once again be able to provide training for teachers, sponsorship for individual children and support for their schools, clean running water where none yet exists, school materials for kids who can’t afford them, and even chickens to feed and support poor families.
You may either order online by going to www.giftethiopia.org or email for one or more catalogues to be sent to you (contact [email protected]).
School links and our gap teaching scheme
Link Ethiopia volunteers have been busy throughout the summer preparing and producing an adventurous and colourful pack of teaching and learning materials for all of our school links, and they are rolling off the press as you read this. Meanwhile, our latest teaching volunteers are just coming to the end of their three-month stay in Gondar, and the pupils in the Fasiledes School will be very sorry to say goodbye to Henry Turnbull and Paddy Hodge, who have been friendly and skilful teachers. Volunteers for the coming term are already in preparation, but Link Ethiopia is now recruiting for the 2008-2009 academic year and welcomes an approach from anyone interested. Again, see our website for details.
The Website
It’s new, it’s colourful, it’s informative as never before, and it’s up-to-date! We have spent long hours on our new website, and if you’ve yet to see it, you can explore at www.linkethiopia.org
We would love you to pay it a visit and while-away a few hours in exploration of its many and varied pages. You can not only learn exactly what we are up to here at Link Ethiopia, but also find out what wonders the country of Ethiopia has to offer. Once you have done some investigation, we would love to have your feed-back on the site. It is very nearly completed now, but we would welcome any thoughts from you that would help to make it the VERY BEST Ethiopian website on the internet.
Coming up on Television
- Wild Africa – Mountains
Michael Palin encounters a troubled Ethiopia
Monday December 10th (UKTV Documentary) - Pole to Pole – Crossing the line
The beginnings of mankind in Ethiopia
Monday December 17th (UKTV Documentary) - GlobeTrekker – Ethiopia
Zany presenter Ian Wright explores
Thursday December 20th for 3 days(Travel Channel)
Proverb of the Month
“ Evil enters like a needle and spreads like an oak tree ”
Website Link of the Month
Link Ethiopia – where else!
www.linkethiopia.org
Help us?
As always, if anyone reading this would like to offer us expertise, knowledge and help with our work or would like to associate yourself with one of our school projects (classrooms, water, toilets, books, etc) then please get in touch. You can donate via the following link, or by contacting us – details at the bottom of this email.